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Woodruff: An open letter to Oconee sheriff

updated Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 6:49pm

Dear Sheriff Berry,

I have always been one of your loyal supporters and voters.

You may remember notifying me of the suicide of my son, Samuel Thomas Crowe, on June 30, 2003. Death notification has to be one of your most difficult and painful tasks as a peace officer. The kindness and concern you showed that day remains in my heart and soul always, and was the first step in a very long healing process.

However, your stance on gun control, as outlined in a Friday Banner-Herald headline, means you have lost my support (Story, “Oconee sheriff boycotts gun dealer over gun ban to public”). In that story, you said you had received only two emails that were critical of your decision, but had received hundreds of emails in favor of your boycott of Dana Safety Supply over its decision not to sell semi-automatic weapons to the general public.

I can’t believe I’m only the third person who is critical of your stand. You have many county citizens who, like me, simply do not speak out, but your current stance on gun control breaks my silence. Your position serves only a selfish small portion of your population, to the potential risk of many.

There is no good reason or purpose for any ordinary citizen to own a rapid-fire military-style assault weapon. The potential consequences of the manufacture and ownership of these weapons can only lead to a multiplied tragedy as we have seen in Newtown, Conn. One death is always too much, 26 deaths, as at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, are unfathomable.

We can talk about limiting our rights and protecting those rights, but the fact remains that there are restraints and limits on rights, placed there for the higher good of our communities. A couple of examples: I’m a gun owner, as I do recognize the possible need for defending myself, my family and others from sick and evil people. But one to six bullets will get the job done — I don’t need 60 bullets, fired in a matter of seconds, to do that job. I also own and drive a car, but this doesn’t mean I can drive in a manner that would put others in danger. Just having a license to drive that vehicle doesn’t give me the right to drive drunk or not follow the rules of the road or to drive an 18-wheeler without proper training and licensing.

I feel strongly that as a society we have a responsibility to limit the unnecessary risks to which we subject each other. Not everyone is as sane as you and me.

I want to make this really personal, Sheriff Berry, as each unnecessary death is really personal to someone. Can you imagine informing 19 other mothers of the deaths of their children, on the same day you had to tell me?

Suicides, wrecks, accidental or purposeful shooting deaths, drowning, etc. — regardless of the mode, the death of a loved one is a tragic, life-altering event for each family affected.

Let all of us do whatever we can to minimize the risks and the sorrow in 2013 and beyond. Please, Sheriff Berry, do not perpetuate and encourage devastation in your community.